Random Mumblings

One of the pioneering efforts in new ways to deliver news and connect with audiences in Tennessee (and the country) is "going dark"

WKRN-TV's "Nashville is Talking" Web site, termed a  "quaint reminder" of days gone by shuts down on Friday.

On the Web site WKRN general manager Gwen Kinsey writes:

NIT in its infancy introduced individual blogging to our mass media vehicle. The site generated buzz, a fair amount of regular readers and a provocative discussion about what role new media might play in the future of mainstream media. It was fun and it was messy. Our community's level of sophistication with social media has taken off. NIT is a quaint reminder of how we all got started. Now, we find ourselves using Twitter, Facebook and live streaming to enhance our connections with our viewers in ways that blogs do less and less. It's time to move on.

As of this Friday, NIT will go dark.

Its host, Christian Grantham said he has turned in his two-week notice. What's next he didn't say.

The first host of "Nashville is Talking," Brittney Gilbert, wasn't mourning the news. In a Q&A with the Nashville Scene's Pith in the Wind blog, she said:

I think Nashville is Talking, no offense to Christian, died long ago. It may be "going dark" now, but when the blog became a multi-media site that required log-ins to comment, it took a big hit. And while Grantham has a great nose for news, I am not sure he was as versed in community engagement. Nashville is Talking moved away from promoting local bloggers, and that is where I think it suffered most.

Frankly, if I were to move back to Nashville, I might start up something similar to what Nashville Is Talking once was. I miss the community that was cultivated and grown to something amazing. Because I do think there is a need for an aggregator of all the online talent in Middle Tennessee, and not just the political one at Post Politics.

I wonder if the Tennessee bloggers will miss NiT.

In June 2007, Brittney Gilbert, the first host of "Nashville is Talking," abruptly quit her job and later landed in a larger market, at KPIX in San Francisco doing its "Eye on Blogs."

Less than a year later in March 2008, the station dropped its "VolunteerVoters" site and author A.C. Kleinheider,, who moved on to the Nashville Post, where he has one of the most influential  political blogs in Tennessee (arguably, the most influential).

While "Nashville is Talking" as Gilbert knew it may have died with her departure, the spirit of innovation at the site continued to burn. During Grantham's turn at the desk, it expanded into social media, live streaming and mobile video, again generally well ahead of local competitors and even broadcast outlets and newspaper Web sites in general.

The station also was the first in the nation to launch a platform for accepting user generated photos and videos (knoxnews.com, all of E.W. Scripps' newspapers and many TV stations use the same vendor, Cell Journalist, that worked to develop the WKRN system).

On his personal blog, Grantham wrote:

Our experimentation with blogs is likely the most widely noted. At a time when the industry as a whole scoffed at empowering any other voice but the reporter or anchor, WKRN embraced it. Now, virtually every TV station across the country has one or staff who author them.

Twitter and Facebook has helped place WKRN in a dominant and trusted position within our local community as viewers seek the latest information that directly affects their lives. WKRN was the first station in Nashville to bring you regular on-air commentary on top news stories directly from our viewers via Twitter. Since then, use of Twitter on cable news and elsewhere has become a new tool in instant viewer interaction.

One of the sure bets of the digital age is nothing stays the same so, like Gilbert, I don't mourn the change. The efforts that were ignited by broadcasting consultant Terry Heaton and Mike  Sechrist, then general manager of the Nashville station, however, were truly innovative and have continued to be.

Heaton,  Sechrist, Gilbert, Kleinheider, Grantham demonstrated that the future of media was as likely to be built or discovered in Nashville or Tennessee as in Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley. I've certainly studied what they were doing and borrowed unabashedly from their innovations.

I hope that spirit of innovation is not what is "going dark" at WKRN. It's quite a legacy, quaint as it may seem to some. As with Heaton, Sechrist, Gilbert and Kleinheider, I'm sure Grantham will move to do even better things and I wish him well.

The new Scripps Convergence Lab at the University of Tennessee is being quickly put to use by the public as well as students.

The Knoxville Digital Strategy Winter Summit will be held in the Convergence Lab on Feb. 24 and is being put on by The Knoxville Social Media Association and Social Media Club of Knoxville.

According to an email from the Knoxville Social Media Club, the Summitl features three panels:

Panel 1 - 3:30 - 4:15 pm: "Social Media & the Health Care Industry: Where We Are & Where We're Going"

Panel 2 - 4:30 - 5:15 pm: "Journalism and Social Media: Breaking Down Barriers or Crossing the Line?"

Panel 3 - 5:30 -6:15 pm: "Does Social Media Have Real Business Value?: Real-world Examples & Case Studies"

More info here.

I spent most of last week at Hampton University at Scripps Career Days. The students I met were extremely bright and they have a wonderful facility to work in at the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications. There are links to more coverage, including photos and videos, of the week at the ScrippsDays.com Web site.

(Photo by Hampton student Nolan Smash, who also shot video of some of the panels.)

Jascon Calacanis gets his rant on comScore, calling them "the technology industry's biggest bully."

It has always baffled me why people continue to rely on comScore when its data is so flawed, particularly when the data drills down to local markets. Generally, it's beyond wildly wrong.

He called comScore a "protection racket" and says:

it was an unspoken truth for years that if you paid Comscore they fixed your numbers, and if you were a small company and didn't, well, you suffered. Comscore would probably deny this, but their recent "pay to play" product shows their true stripes.

Calacanis tends toward hyperbole; his critics call him a blowhard. He's definitely taken the gloves off on his long-running criticisms of one of the biggest online metrics houses. Bully for him!

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Ruffin McNeill didn't say a word. He just walked into the room filled with reporters and fans waiting to hear from East Carolina's new coach and repeatedly pumped his right fist in the air.

He was home, back at his alma mater and in his native North Carolina.

"This is my destination job," McNeill said Friday. "Let's get that out front right now. This is not a stepping-stone hop for Ruff. This is where I want to be until you tow me away from here. You'll have to drag me away."

More

A great way to start. McNeill sounds like he'll do great at East Carolina and I wish him well. Amid the slew of  crazy college coach stories of the last few weeks, this is a positive one. Everything I have read about McNeill praises him as a person.

AP photo by The Daily Reflector, Rhett Butler

Too often, we let the sources set the terms. Even as (WBIR News Director) Bill (Shory) states this obvious truth, the crowd of his peers nearly shouts him down, yelling "Yes, he does!" That's absurd. This group of reporters in a major sports market is so cowed by the university media machine that it doesn't even know it's the victim here. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome. Perhaps the new term for sports reporter/hostages who've spent so much time under the thumb of sports information people they don't even know they're victims anymore should be "Knoxville Syndrome."

-- Stacey Woelfel, RTDNA Chairman

One of the toughest indictments of Knoxville sports journalists I've ever read. It's a reaction to the YouTube video that shows the raucous pre-press conference negotiations between the media and University of Tennessee officials over the ground rules for a press conference in which Lane Kiffin would announce his departure as Tennessee head football coach. Kiffin wanted no questions, no live video or audio, and off-camera and on-camera statements.

WBIR News Director Bill Shory refused to go along with the off-camera/on-camera arrangement and several of his journalist colleagues tried to get him to back down and acquiesce to the demands. It was one last humiliation Lane Kiffin was angling for the University of Tennessee and the Knoxville media, a staged press conference with the USC man in complete charge of the spin.

"Knoxville Syndrome" is unequivocally unfair to many Knoxville sports journalists. There are several dedicated, highly ethical, hardworking journalists who cover sports in Knoxville.  But if the term sticks, the city's sports journalists will be the subjects of psychology grad student theses for years on the factors that led to their "Knoxville Syndrome." For journalism groups, a panel discussion on how to avoid befalling it will become standard fare. I imagine someone is planning just such a panel at this moment -- or should be..

It could be mentioned in textbooks. Had it not been for Shory and a couple others standing their ground, it most certainly would have been a completely depressing chapter in the YouTube history of journalism.  It's like a pack of journalists were trapped in a "Big Brother" episode..

The YouTube video has gotten 193,250 views so far and the incident is being blogged extensively. Here are some more takes on it:

Jeff Woods: A Hero for Our Times: TV News Director Stands Up to Arrogant Flack, Wussy Reporters
Al Tompkins: As Tennessee Football Coach Resigns, News Director Stands Up for Full Coverage
Ben Garrett: Shory got it right
Jamey Tucker's BlogSquat: News Director Stands Up to Lane Kiffin and UT
Steve Safran writing on Lost Remote: WBIR-TV stands up to school - and other journalists
Instapundit: REAL JOURNALISM AT WORK: Bill Shory has an excellent reputation in this town, and for a reason
Jack McElroy: WBIR's Bill Shory is my hero
Katie Allison Granju: VIDEO: WBIR's Bill Shory shows us why real journalism still matters

Photo above shows Bud Ford of the University of Tennessee sports information office, arguing with WBIR-TV's Bill Shory over press conference ground rules.

A video of the negotiations between the Knoxville media and Bud Ford, the University of Tennessee's Associate Athletics Director - Media Relations (Men) - Football, before the press conference where head football coach Lane Kiffin announced he was leaving Tennessee for the head coaching job at the University of Southern California.

Kiffin wanted to do two press conferences, one without cameras and one with. No questions apparently were going to be allowed at either. He also did not want any live feeds either video or audio.

Update: Jack McElroy and Katie Granju blogging the same thing.

 

A follow up to my Dec. 21 post about Examiner.com's success at SEO, ranking high in Google searches and ballooning traffic: It seems the site has been at least temporarily banned from Google News.

Hat tip to Examiner.com contributor Elizabeth Kelly for making me aware of that news.

I'm not sure what rules infraction got the site bumped from Google News, but I still believe traditional news media sites could learn something from watching it, particularly its ability to rank high in organic search results.

Boots